Not every person that is good at their profession will start their own business. So how do you know you’re one of those that can do it?
If you’re thinking of setting up a business, there is no doubt you love what you do and are good at it. However, in addition to those professional skills you’ve got, there are some soft skills that will help you start a business and be a great entrepreneur!
Creativity
While not every business is creative, every business owner needs creativity.
It’s especially important when it comes to marketing your business. Creating social media content, writing website copy, and creating pieces of traditional marketing all require creativity. While you can learn all the best techniques to edit videos or ways to structure your emails, the content has to be produced in a creative way to make sure it’s memorable and interesting to your audience.
Ability to learn
When you’re a business owner, you always have to learn and improve yourself. That’s why you need to be able to take in new information and actually remember things as well as understand how you can implement what you’ve learnt into your business to make it more successful.
Communication skills
Whether it’s your team, suppliers or customers, as a business owner you communicate with loads of people every single day. To make sure those conversations you have bring you the results you want, you must have great communication skills.
Some people thing that being talkative is the same as having great communication skills. However, someone who talks a lot might be able to keep the conversation going but not get any results from it while someone who’s quieter might be able to ask the right questions and move the conversation in the right direction meaning they get the information they need or close the deal.
When you have great communication skills, it’s easier to provide excellent customer service, which is extremely important when trying to retain both new and existing customers and exceed your customer’s expectation.
Leadership skills
Even if you start a business as a sole trader, when your business grows, you are likely to need some help and hire staff.
Being a boss is easy – you tell your employees what they need to do and if they don’t do it or do it wrong, you get angry! However, no one wants to work for someone like that. People want to work for true leaders that can mentor and coach the team as well as motivate them to work towards common goals.
Time management skills
People who have great time management skills are able to achieve more in less time. When you start and run a business, you have an endless to-do list, so being able to plan your time effectively is a must.
Fortunately, time management can be learnt and you don’t have to be born with it. If you want to learn how to create good planning habits and maximise your efficiency, check this blog post.
Problem-solving skills
As a business owner, you face problems no matter how much you try to avoid them or how much planning you do. When those problems appear, it’s essential you know how to deal with them.
Sometimes, to solve a problem you need to make good decisions quickly and sometimes you need to think outside the box. Dealing with problems can be stressful, so it’s very important to face the situation as calmly as possible.
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Flexibility
Running a business is so much different compared to working as an employee. You have way more responsibility, need to understand every aspect of the business and communicate with more people.
To be able to do everything, you need to be flexible. You need to be able to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, such as speaking to different people, working on different tasks or managing business growth.
If you’ve ever noticed that you can quickly move your focus from one thing to another, that might be a sign that you should start a business!
Patience
Many new entrepreneurs expect their businesses to grow super quickly. They want all things done on day one and hope for overnight success.
However, 99% of the time, things don’t work like that. Good things require time! That’s why it’s very important you stay patient and don’t set your expectations too high. You might not have a single customer on day one of launching your business but if you stay patient and focused on your goals you might end up with thousands of customers by the end of your first year!
Decision-making skills
Whether it’s personal or business decisions, making them can be difficult. Don’t we all sometimes struggle to choose what to have for dinner? So imagine making a decision that can really impact your business? Sounds scary, doesn’t it?
However, the more you do it, the more confident you become! While some decisions need to be made after careful consideration, the only way to make others is to “trust your gut”.
Self-motivation
Being your own boss is great. You can set your own working hours, no one tells you what to do and you can make decisions you believe are the best for your business. On the other hand, there is no one else to motivate you or give you a pat on the back when everything works out well.
That’s why self-motivation is one of the most important personal traits to have. Every single day you need to motivate yourself to get out of bed, work a set amount of hours and actually be productive.
Stress management
We would love to say that running a business is the least stressful job in the world and every business owner is always happy and relaxed. Unfortunately, running a business comes hand in hand with stress. Increased responsibility, decision making, working long hours, unexpected problems… all that causes stress. That’s when being able to manage your stress levels becomes essential.
If you know what helps you unwind or even better, what you can do to avoid stress in the first place, that will be very helpful in your business journey! And if you don’t we’ve got you covered with some tips here.
Training
You might be a sole trader in the beginning, but you never know when you’ll need help and have to hire some new team members.
And when you do, you must be able to train them and explain everything they need to know. Even if someone is the expert in what they do, when they start a new job, they need training! You not only need to show them where to find things they need but also explain what projects the business is working on and how they will contribute to it as well as what software they’ll have to use and other things like that. You also need to make sure you can explain those things clearly and be patient when you get too many questions or need to repeat yourself.
Active listening skills
One thing is knowing how to speak in the right way and know how to get the most out of a conversation and another is knowing how to listen.
If you’re trying to convince someone to buy from you, only talking about what you offer is unlikely to convince them. You need to give your prospect time to speak, express their opinion and tell you the objections they have. Once you know what is stopping them from buying your product or service, you will be able to give the right reply. It will also give you an understanding of what other people might be thinking about your business and how you can improve certain things.
Are you ready to start a business?
Even if you think you don’t have some of these important skills but have a great business idea, we can help you gain them and start a successful business!
We have a team of experienced business advisors as well as trainers specialising in business, digital and leadership skills! Contact us today and find out what support is available for you.
